Radio interview on CBC Radio One The Early Edition with the Popes today

Alex and Barb Pope were interviewed this morning on CBC Radio One: The Early Edition by Michelle Eliot in her series on 'the Daily Commute'. You can find the interview here: Feb. 11, at the 1:10 mark. Barb explains how her e-bike allows her to partake in the family outings by bike despite suffering from fibromyalgia. You can also read about it in this column.

Petition for truck sideguards

Please sign this petition by MP Olivia Chow for sideguards on trucks to improve cyclists', pedestrians' and motorcyclists' safety:

 http://www.oliviachow.ca/truck_sideguards_petition

 

Thanks!

Jackie

Help wanted for Bike Tune-up Workshop

Our Maple Ridge/Pitt Meadows HUB committee is planning a Spring Bike Tune-up Workshop and is looking for people who feel they have some skills to share. If you know how to fix a flat, adjust/fix brakes, change brake pads, lube and do other minor bike repairs and would like to teach others, we’d love to hear from you! Date & location still to be determined, but most likely at the Haney Farmers Market on a Saturday this Spring. 

If you can help, please send me an e-mail at jchow23708@yahoo.ca, or if you know someone who might be interested, please pass on the message.

Thanks!

Radio interview on CBC Radio The Early Edition, In Your Neighbourhood

Margaret Gallagher of CBC Radio The Early Edition, In Your Neighbourhood, was in Maple Ridge at the Port Haney WCE station/Billy Miner Friday Jan. 17 to talk to people about transportation issues. I found an interview with Graham Mowatt about transit at about 0:34, and I talked about cycling at about 2:19. Here's the link.

Column The News: We need to stop suburban sprawl

My latest column in the Maple Ridge News:

posted Jan 10, 2014

Municipal finance manager Paul Gill has, thankfully, publicly sounded the alarm about sprawl.

Maple Ridge needs to change the way it grows.

Undoubtedly Mr. Gill has explained this significant problem in more depth to our council members. So far, however, they’re happily continuing down the same sprawling path, seemingly oblivious to the horrendous long-term cost they’re saddling the district with.

What voters need to understand is that it’s imperative that we put a stop to the way our municipality – as so many others – continues to expand into our forests and agricultural lands. We just can’t afford it.

Much of the land now being eaten up by is not terribly suitable for development to begin with, often located on hillsides, with many gullies and fish-bearing streams and other features that make it even more costly to develop, maintain and service.

Read more...

Change of local HUB Committee meeting place + time

Like other groups, unfortunately we are no longer able to use a Maple Ridge library meeting room for free for our monthly meetings, and this has resulted in a change of dates and meeting venue. Starting in January 2014 we are meeting in the Alouette Room (upstairs) in the library, on the 3rd Thursday of the month, instead of the 2nd Thursday. Our meeting schedule and place has changed as follows:

Jan. 16
Feb. 20
Mar 20 (note: this meeting will take place in the Preschool Room at the Leisure Centre!
Apr. 17
May 15
Jun. 19
Jul. 17
Aug. 21

The meeting time has not changed and is still 6:45 - 8:45 pm.

These are the dates that have been booked so far. As soon as the schedule for the rest of the year becomes available, I will post it on the blog, and as usual I will request the local papers to advertise our meetings in their community calendars.

My hope for the New Year: it would be wonderful to see new (as well as familiar!) faces and lots of ideas and enthusiasm to help make cycling better in our communities. We welcome all who like to bike: young and old, novice and experienced, long-distance and short-distance alike. Cycling benefits all residents, even those who do not cycle. So why not make attending our meetings one of your New Year resolutions!

If you're not able to attend our meetings, but would still like to support HUB in our efforts to make cycling safer, more convenient and pleasant for all ages and abilities, please consider becoming a member.

You can also join our listserv. We send out e-mails about anything of interest to local cyclists, such as open houses by the District of Maple Ridge or the City of Pitt Meadows, group rides that we organize, etc. You can expect on average about 2 e-mails per month, perhaps a bit more in the summer, and less in the winter months. If you would like to receive our e-mails, please send me an e-mail at jchow23708@yahoo.ca. Of course you can always send me an e-mail with any suggestions or comments.

Column The News: Which do you prefer, car or bike culture?

My latest column in the Maple Ridge News: is it possible to create a cycling culture in a car dominated city?

posted Dec 18

Pitt Meadows is already a nice place to live if you like biking, but the city continues to look for ways to make it safer, more convenient and better. Pitt Meadows is still looking for more applicants for several volunteer positions on its new active transportation advisory committee.

Sometimes people tell me investment in cycling infrastructure is a waste of money; it’s no use trying to convince more people to use their bikes to get around. They feel that most Canadians will never adopt a cycling culture; they love their cars, and that’s just the way things are.

I beg to differ. 

Read more...

My brother Emiel at the handlebar of the family bakfiets, with my sister-in-law Nuria and nephews Fabian and Marten cozy inside.

 

Column: Only cars are not allowed on new path along Lougheed

Here's HUB's November cycling column in The News:

Published: November 15, 2013 7:00 AM

It continues to amaze me how some vocal bike lane opponents continue to be adamant that people on bikes do not deserve a safe place to ride.

The most common reason is that “they don’t pay for the roads." Don’t they? Actually, most cycling is done on municipal roads, which are mostly paid for through property taxes. Whether you bike or drive, you pay property taxes if you own a home, and if you rent, your share of the property taxes are included in that.

Recently there have been some articles and letters in our local papers about the “astronomical cost of the bike lanes” along Lougheed Highway between 216th and Laity streets.

Read more...

NACTO Urban Street Design Guide and Bikeways Design Guide

It's great to read and hear about all the wonderful changes that are happening in cities around North America now that city engineers and planners are realizing that if we continue to design our cities for cars, we just keep getting more cars, and livability will worsen in many ways as a consequence. We now see many municipalities improving their streets to make them safer for pedestrians and cyclists, and hopefully this will quickly lead to improved (perceived) safety, and more and more people choosing active transportation instead of the car for at least some of their daily trips.

The provincial and federal guidelines and standards that engineers here in Canada adhere to are unfortunately not quite keeping up with this revolution. Recently the (U.S.) National Association of City Transportation Officials (NACTO) has published the Urban Street Design Guide, after publication in 2011 of the Bikeways Design Guide. These documents are tremendously valuable for cycling advocates and transportation engineers alike, since they contain information and examples of best practices from all over the world, so that the wheel does not need to be re-invented anymore. Of course, every road/street/intersection is unique and common sense and experience and insight of road users should still play a significant role in improving the design in each situation.

This past week, the Association of Pedestrian and Bicycle Professionals (ABPB) and NACTO provided a free webinar on the Urban Street Design Guide, of which a recording is now available for viewing: go to the APBP home page and click into the NACTO screen.

The APBP site presently offers a discount on the print version of the Urban Street Design Guide until the end of May 2014, and the Bikeway Design Guide can be purchased here.

Here are again the links for the on-line version of both documents:
Urban Street Design Guide
Bikeways Design Guide

Multi-use path along Lougheed from 216th to Laity: photos

The multi-use path under construction along the north side of Lougheed from 216th to Laity is progressing well. Well before the end of the year we should be able to bike here: